Key Facts Of The Day 3/31

Storms and Flooding

• Severe storms that included at least two confirmed tornadoes injured several people Wednesday, damaged homes and businesses and downed power lines in Mississippi and Tennessee after they spread damage in Arkansas, Missouri and Texas overnight before moving to the Deep South.

  • About 185,000 customers were without electricity Thursday morning in the wake of the storm along a band of states: Mississippi and Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio and Michigan.

  • Widespread damage was reported in the Jackson, Tennessee, area as a tornado warning was in effect.

    • Significant damage occurred to a nursing home near Jackson-Madison County General Hospital and the Madison County Sheriff’s Office in Jackson.

  • In Nashville, Tennessee, paneling fell five stories from the side of a downtown hotel Wednesday evening and onto the roof of a building below.

  • A warehouse roof collapsed as the storms moved through Southaven, Mississippi.

  • Earlier Wednesday, a tornado that struck Springdale, Arkansas, and the adjoining town of Johnson injured seven people, two critically.

    • The National Weather Service said that the tornado would be rated “at least EF-2,” which would mean wind speeds reached 111-135 MPH.

  • In northwest Missouri, an EF-1 tornado with wind speeds around 90 MPH struck St. Joseph on Tuesday night. That tornado damaged two homes, but no injuries were reported there.

  • Another EF-1 tornado with wind speeds around 100 MPH touched down briefly before dawn Wednesday in a rural subdivision 25 miles east of Dallas, Texas, damaging two roofs.

  • Schools in Memphis and dozens in Mississippi had closed early or switched to online instruction as a precaution against crowding children into buildings or buses.

Wildfires

• As of Thursday, there are currently 41 large active wildfires that have burned 154,887 acres across AL, AZ, FL, GA, KS, KY, OK, NC, TN, TX. As of Wednesday, 15,327 wildfires have burned 560,214 acres across the country.

• As of Thursday, the Crittenberg Complex in Texas has burned 33,175 acres and is 80% contained.

  • It consists of three wildfires in Coryell County, Texas.

  • About 80 people have been assigned to fight the fire.

• As of Thursday, the Hatcher Mountain-Indigo Lane Fire in Tennessee has burned 3,700 acres and is 5% contained.

  • The wildfire burning near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Sevier County, Tennessee, has prompted officials to close schools in the county Thursday.

  • Over 100 structures have already been destroyed by the destructive fire.

  • At least one person was injured in the fire.

  • Two firefighters were injured and five fire engines were damaged or destroyed during the massive response to a wildfire that began in the Wears Valley community Wednesday.

  • At least 70 fire departments and emergency personnel were working the wildfire and roads.

  • Parts of the county, which includes the cities of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, were under a mandatory evacuation due to the fire Thursday morning.

  • The area was under a High Wind Warning overnight with the National Weather Service forecasting winds of 40 to 50 MPH with gusts up to 90 MPH.

  • A separate evacuation order for another part of the county was briefly issued overnight after a downed power line sparked another fire. The second fire had burned 1.5 acres after starting just before midnight Wednesday.

Extreme Heat

• As the official rainy season comes to an end in California, more than 93% of the state is considered to be in severe or extreme drought.

• All of California’s major reservoirs are currently at below-average levels. The state’s snowpack on Wednesday was a dismal 39% of what it typically is this time of year

• This last winter was supposed to be a post-Covid rebound for America’s $50 billion ski industry, but the persistent drought linked to climate change, labor shortages and frustrated customers stuck in traffic and in long lift lines has made skiing getaways less attractive.

  • Locals are worried about the huge carbon footprint from the tiny Aspen airport as there has been an increase in private jet traffic.

  • The ski season is already about a month shorter. The temperature has risen by 3 degrees Fahrenheit in the Colorado Rockies since 1980.

• If the United States switched completely to cleaner energy vehicles and power plants, it would not only benefit the environment but also save an estimated 110,000 lives and $1.2 trillion in health costs over the next 30 years.

  • About 3% of U.S. counties with the highest populations of people of color would disproportionately benefit from a transition to electric vehicles and non-combustion electricity generation.

New Reports And Data

• A March 2022 study found that switching to clean energy would save over 100,000 US lives.

• A March 2022 study found that drought alters Mammoth Mountain’s carbon dioxide emissions.